The Curse of Humanity literally
by Ivana Marchoness
Summary: It should have just been a simple energon raid. They're giant alien robots from outer space. There's no way anything is going to be normal. With that said, what happens when said raid takes an odd turn? They become humans? Yes. ((Use of mixed universe of characters, no specific pairings quite yet, but I'm up for suggestions. Sorry for making you read my horrible summary.))
1. Chapter I: What the Frag Just Happened

Hello, this is Ivana. I more or less made it a goal for myself to get al least five chapters of this story up by the end of summer. Additionally, I edited the content I already have, so I'm reuploading the first portion I originally published on here. Also, if you're interested in any of my work I may be posting in the future, I reccomed you follow me since I am trying (with considerable difficulty) to get more of my content published.

As a fair warning, I will be using two OCs -possibly three-, one of which is mine and another of which belongs to my friend, Autobot Dragonfly. Also, I'm not using any set universe, as I disclosed in my summary, rather, I'm using a mixed cast of characters some of which I have borrowed components of their personality from various universes.

Finally, since I tend to be a rather forgetful writer, if you'd like me to keep up this fanfic, please don't hesitate to annoy me with PMs in order to keep me on my toes~ ;)

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Vex was in the middle of battling, loving every second of providing a distraction for Optimus' guard as Megatron went at it with the ever-regal warrior Prime. The dark femme could only be happier if Megatron would let her go all out instead of just providing a distraction. She was pretty sure that the larger weapons specialist was skilled enough to last a while if she did. Even though she wasn't, she was quite sure she was giving the huge weapons specialist a fit by staying too close for him to fire at her properly as she made the occasional slashes with her claws and specialised wrist blades. As far as she could remember, this was because the Autobots got into a tizzy because their latest plan involved hijacking a power plant for engergon production which may or may not have involved killing and harming a few of the rather squishy locals. Quite frankly, she could care or less about what this was about. The lower command femme liked fighting in general. She laughed in a near manic way as the black mech nearly hit her with a blast from one of his afamed plasma cannons, probably fed up with her evasive way of approaching things with only the occasional cheap blow. That was fine by her. She slid back to avoid another blast of plasma cannon fire from Ironhide. As she slid back, suddenly her optics seemed to short out, but before she could curse Primus, Unicron, and the Pit -maybe Knockout too- in the same sentence, her vision came back as she felt her side slam into solid brick with a great bit of pain. Wait, something was wrong about that. At her velocity, along with the durability of her armour's plaiting- while minimal- her frame should have crashed through the brick. Also, crashing into brick wouldn't have hurt her that much, considering she had gotten thrown straight through a brick structure before. She shuttered her optics several times quickly, suddenly noticing something. Everything seemed taller, and every bot previously in proximity seemed to have gone with only the destruction to show that her CPU wasn't corroding inside of her helm. She shook her helm in efforts to clear her processor and get an answer for this queerness. In doing so, she felt something brush over her shoulders. It instantly put her at edge. Reaching for her shoulder, she noted that her hands felt more sensitive than before as she found something long and rather soft over her shoulder, bringing it into the view of her optics made her want to do a double take at what she saw: _hair_. She didn't have hair. This was wrong. Then she noted the appearance of her hands, they were human, absent of her long claws, or the blades that were unsheathed as she was fighting less than a klick ago. She gave herself a once over, finding that she was human. So of course, the Decepticon femme did the natural thing, she panicked and began hyperventilating as she collapsed, her back falling against the brick wall she previously slammed into. Slowly, she began sliding down the wall, until she was in a sitting position on the sidewalk, arms around her legs, trying to get a grip on things. What happened next didn't help her corroding sanity.

Starscream flew through the air fluidly, dipping out of cannon fire with his usual masterful flight skill. Doing a barrel roll as a blast of plasma skimmed over his right wing. If he could in alt mode, he would have sneered at the _astounding_ cover fire offered by the ground forces led by the _ever brilliant_ ground bound femme that somehow made it to the command tier if possible in his current form. In annoyance, he returned fire, null rays producing themselves from the belly of the F-22. He gave fire and then made a quick turn, climbing into the air to later descend with heavier firepower as he came down, but suddenly, the Seeker's world, while for not even an astrosecond, went black. He couldn't even curse Knockout for failing to catch whatever system flaw caused his sudden loss of vision before he could see again, seeing the details of Detroit's industrial district swirl in a blur of colours and light as he felt himself falling fast - too fast and uncontrolled. It wasn't right. Even if -some how, instantaneously- his stabilisers, thrusters, and anti-gravitational systems suddenly shorted out in flight, his wings should have let him glide to the ground in a somewhat controlled manner. This was too uncontrolled to make any sense. The vain flier panicked even more as the concrete of the sidewalk below sharpened in his vision with his descent, and then collided into said concrete violently, rolling a few times until he came to a resting position on his back, feeling pain shoot into his frame. He felt dizzy, and delirious, like a brute force attacking virus hit his systems. This was so wrong. He'd crash landed before when he was shot down from the sky, and this was very wrong. As he raised his helm, he figured his T-cog must have been broken in the fall and he somehow transformed into his root form as he was falling considering he was obviously not an F-22 since he had a helm to begin with. Looking around, he spotted a rather panicked looking human against a nearby brick wall. This was useless. Stupid humans. Observing further, he noticed there wasn't any bot around. Strange, considering the circumstances. He let out a small groan as he began pushing himself up, but, much to his annoyance, only to fall back down on the pavement. Cursing Primus for his discombobulated state, the Vosian decided to stay down and survey the surroundings for the others.

Vex lifted her head just in time to see a squishy falling from the sky and slamming into the concrete, and rolling a few times until he finally stopped on his back. _Stupid humans_ , she thought, always doing idiotic things. How did he get into an evacuated area anyways? She then did a double take, she'd been doing a lot of those in the last few moments, as she heard him curse Primus, as well as spotting a necklace, hanging at an albeit odd angle around his neck, with the Decepticon insignia. She gave him a quick once over, spotting the single red streak in his predominantly silver-blonde hair, running through her head the colour scheme of silver with red accents and since he fell out of the sky, a flier. Instantly, she had one thought, Starscream. She unwrapped her arms from around herself and crawled over to the sprawled out second in command on the concrete. Tentatively, she poked him, "Starscream?" When she didn't get an answer, she yelled, despite any higher command than the Air Commander in front of her was on the other side of Detroit probably grappling with a certain, ever-virtuous Prime, piecing things together in her mind that all of the bots in the battle must have been turned human somehow, Primus only knows,"Megatron! Starscream's dead...and I think we're all human!"

Starscream didn't bother responding, opting to ignore the human until he noticed something, her eyes were dark violet-red, and a Decepticon insignia hung from her neck. Then he caught what she said, his name, and pieced together who was over him, red violet optics, Decepticon, femme...Vex. This human was somehow the annoyingly ambitious second lieutenant of ground forces. Then he noticed something, if she was human and didn't seem completely puny, then, logically thinking, he must be human as well. He wanted to purge at that thought. Then he heard what she said. Instantly, the Seeker bolted upright, regretting his speed as it sent a shock of pain tinged with nausea to his head, and hissed, slapping her away from him,"I'm not dead you processor-diluted glitch. Now help me."

The femme in question only scowled in response to the Vosian's demand, "Megatron, turns out Screamer isn't dead! May I make him dead?!...please ...my lord!"

Starscream groaned in protest of that idea, "I can answer that for you, _no_."

Megatron had been fighting the Prime, purposefully leading him away from the rest of the Autobots -though himself away from his own forces as well. Not that being without his forces fazed the former gladiator. He could take on anyone, including the Prime that he was currently grappling with. He let out a growl as a hit got past his defences and connected with his chassis, sending him backwards a few paces. Internally scowling he prepared to strike back, but in a split astrosecond before he made his move, his vision flashed black, and he felt himself falling backwards onto the ground. In the same instant his vision returned to him, his back slammed into the concrete. He let out a frustrated growl, then rolled over, and pushed himself up and stood. Scanning the area, Optimus was nowhere to be seen, and then he noticed something he probably should have before, everything around him was immensely larger...or he was smaller. With that thought, he walked over to a puddle at the edge of the road. In the water's reflection, he didn't see himself. Instead, he saw a human male with violently red eyes, and unruly, spiked black hair scowling back at him, the Decepticon insignia flashed the sunlight from a pendant around his neck. This was unacceptable, he thought as he began to get a grasp on exactly what was happening. He was human. He, the great gladiator-warlord of the Decepticons was human. Alarm sirens screeched in his mind. He needed to find out who did this and make them change him back. What if the others saw him like this? Then another horrifying thought came to his mind. What if the other Decepticons in the battle were human as well!? No. That could not happen. He had both his second and fourth in command -both of whom had duties outside of the command tier that were also not so easily filled- in this battle as well as some of his best fighters, not to mention his rather unique surgeon-medic. As expendable as he'd like to think them all, that many with that type of skill were not so simply replaced. He needed to get to the other side of the city to find out what happened. Yet again, another thing occurred to him: he would have to walk, and Detroit was a large, fragging city by human standards, and he was human. So, cursing Primus, Unicron, the Pit, and anything one or thing he could think worthy to curse upon, he began his walk to the other side of the cursed city.

Vex begrudgingly helped Starscream up as she, herself, stood. Despite the fact that he was visibly unstable from his fall, she was still startled as he looped an arm around her. Instinctively, the fourth in command growled at the second in command, hating contact unless it was for medical or combat purposes. It didn't help that she also happened to hate the particular flier who had decided to latch onto her. To help prove her point more than her earlier growl, she turned to scowl at him, brow furrowed and deep red-violet eyes narrowed. Then, slowly with an unsettling calm, she spoke, "Get off of me now Starscream, or I swear to Primus, I will flip your self-important aft, onto, well, your aft."

Despite the display of hostility, the Air Commander was unfazed by her, if anything, Starscream liked riling up the ever-impertinent femme considering he was one of the few who could send her to the brig. Laughing drily, he responded as if he was simply too bored of her to even care about what she thought which he didn't,"Calm down Vexie, just tolerate it. Unless of course you want to have to pick me up every ten seconds I fall, and I guarantee I will pull you down with me each and every time, or carry me which I don't think you'd take a liking to. It's just until I'm over this delirium from falling from the sky. Anyways, I am second in command, and Megatron won't be here for a while considering he's on the other side of this accursed city. To put simply, you have no authority to demand anything. I am your superior." He finished his sentence purposefully on the note of his superiority, simply to irk her more so.

Ruefully, she silently agreed to the terms the persnickety Vosian had just laid upon her, as well as making note that his voice still had an annoying screechy note to its tone, resenting him for pointing out that he outranked her. Quietly thinking to herself, You are my temporary command, you will never be my superior, and from her point of view, he never was. "So, since you're in charge", she said with an annoyed vibe, "what should I do?"

He let out another dry laugh at her annoyance, as if feeding off the violent femme's frustration, "Just find my trine mates, and try to rally the others together. They're probably confused. Maybe more so than we are."

She nodded, for the time being, not questioning his orders. At the very least, they were logical. With that, she began to scan her surroundings for the two mechs that completed the Primus-damned trine of Starscream, thinking to herself, They are every sense of the word useless: a self-important coward, an easily swayed simpleton, and a complete idiot. Though, her search wasn't difficult as her eyes landed on two individuals, each with a necklace bearing the Decepticon insignia. One with light violet eyes, and choppy black hair, the ends tinted violet, fervently running his hands through his hair in an almost manic way, darting eyes to match, Skywarp, she figured, accompanied by a platinum blond with cherry red eyes that were trained on the pavement he walked on. Each of them seemed confused as they stumbled around nonsensically. She approached them, ever slowly, with their delirious trine leader latched to her side and stumbling along.

Skywarp, confused even by his standards -well, really, he had been ever since Thundercracker crashed into him and they fell from the sky, turned into humans somewhere in between-, spotted two individuals: a female and male, both of which bore the Decepticon insignia, and stared for a few moments, trying to think of an explanation. It seemed that fate felt like he shouldn't remain gawking in such a ridiculously unintelligent fashion, because it then hit him that they must have all been turned into humans...somehow. With this newfound information, he took the moments that would have been spent to figure out the former anyways to figure out who they were. After some seconds passed, he seemed to understand more or less, who they were and nearly tripped over his feet and ran into who he presumed was Starscream as he met them. He spoke quickly and frantically, "St-Starscream, is that you, and... Vex? What happened? Do you know who or what did that? Why? Where's Megatron? What are we going to do?"

Vex rubbed her temples in response to the manic, possibly processor damaged, Seeker's rapid-fire questions as said Seeker's leader groaned into her shoulder, "Tell him to shut up. It's making my head hurt." Vex almost laughed, at receiving the command she was going to do anyways if he continued, and looked Skywarp dead in the eye, "Skywarp?"

"Yeah?"

" _Shut up_ ", she finished.

Starscream wanted to take the time to laugh at the affronted look on Skywarp's face, as Thundercracker stood behind him, his face in the palm of one of his hands, but suddenly he felt a rather wrenching sensation, and abruptly jerked Vex into the direction of the street as he began to retch, and then commenced to purge into the gutter of the street. Today just wasn't his day, not at all. He blamed the barrel roll he made before he was changed, and that this body just couldn't quite take the stress on its insides. It didn't help that he was purging all contents of his stomach in the streets in a time of confusion and chaos in front of his trine mates. He couldn't see them, but he was pretty sure that this lovely image he was providing was making Skywarp panic even more, and Thundercracker was probably as confused as all get out. He felt the unease in Vex, whom he had his hold on, as she seemed to be trying to move from him. In response, he only tightened his grip. This was bad enough, he didn't quite care that he was making her uneasy. Espionage and sabotage were supposed to be in her job description, supposedly she had committed murders of a far more disturbed nature than a bit of purging. Regardless, he wasn't going to give his image any further tarnishing by falling into the gutter he just purged in. No, that was not happening if he had anything to do with it. Human or not, he still had pride in his self image. As he was finished, he was jerked into proper posture and pulled more than led back to his previous location in from of his trine mates. His head felt like it was throbbing. Not exactly having an interest in bettering the situation of the Seeker, Vex spoke, annoyance dripping off of her voice, "So, anyone else's delirium giving them the calling to purge the contents of their inner-workings in the gutters?" As Starscream watched the two other Seekers, it looked as if Skywarp was going to raise his hand, but Thundercracker swatted it down as Vex added, "If you do, hold your peace. I'm not holding anyone above the gutters for they won't fall in their own puke, or Starscream's." Despite them being his trine mates, Starscream could have laughed at that idea, but he didn't feel like making his head spin anymore. Not that his trine mates were any better, seeing as Skywarp looked sick, and Thundercracker seemed like he was going to trip over his own feet at any given moment. He sighed, at this rate, he was doomed to stay this way forever and be forced to live like a human. The thought made him want to purge again if he had anything else remaining inside of him to purge at all.

Vex sighed, actually feeling pity for the Seekers around her which was saying a lot. Considering, she hated Seekers, especially Starscream, and by extension, his trine. They seemed purely miserable. She silently thanked Primus the worst that was the product of this horrific transformation was the dull aching in her side where she hit the wall. Shaking her head with a sigh, she turned to Skywarp and Thundercracker, "Can you two stay sitting on that bench and watch Starscream, I'll look to see if I can find Breakdown and Barricade since they are my charges and the closest to my knowledge then plan from there. Will that be okay? I'll meet you here when the sun begins to set."

Thundercracker and Skywarp nodded and sat on the bench, then thought of something just to show that they really were more loyal to Starscream than her. So in unison, both replied, "Yeah, sure Vexie."

Vex clenched her jaw, and let out a small growl. She hated that nickname. Starscream coined it among the fliers under his command whom she hated to begin with, she hated that mutilation of her designation, and always would, absolutely, forever ,and completely hate it. Wordlessly, she handed off Starscream to them, who seemed to understand, and gave a simple groan in reply as he fell onto the laps of his ever oblivious trine mates. She then walked away and went in search for the other two, minus Megatron, whom they were relying to return to the site of the battle soon enough. After walking a few blocks without much success, she finally spotted Barricade or at least who she assumed was Barricade. To put simply, he looked pissed. Absolutely pissed. He was leaning against a wall as if he was expecting someone to have arrived earlier, choppy black-brown bangs hung in his face, rimming deep crimson flecked brown eyes, the Decepticon insignia that laid over the beginning of his chest reflecting the sun. Getting straight to the matter at hand, she walked up to him, and spoke, "Barricade, this is Vex. I need to find Breakdown and we need to meet back with Starscream, and then rendezvous with Megatron, who we suspect will be coming our way."

He nodded, despite having been thoroughly been stewing over a nice mix or rage and anger, the only sign of doing so being a growl released that would probably be perceived as one of annoyance, and then spoke, "Sure, but do you know how we were changed to humans? Or possibly who is responsible? If you do, can I slag their sorry aft into the core of this slaggin' excuse of a planet?" She laughed, in response, "Yeah, sure, and Breakdown?" Barricade sighed, rolling his shoulders, "He's probably two or three blocks from where you came from. That's where I last saw him anyways."

Vex nodded, and set off with the company of him, heading back to the bench she had told Starscream and his trine to stay. Thankfully, upon her return with Barricade, Breakdown was already there, fussing with a now, apparently recombobulated Starscream about her whereabouts which she found slightly strange due to his usual nature. As she approached the group, the two arguing didn't seem to notice her arrival. In annoyance, she scowled, and pulled Starscream back forcefully, directing him to stand beside the other three, now in the sight line of Breakdown, "You wanted me?" He didn't answer, but glared with enough self-explanatory vehemence, and running a hand through his buzzed, brindle hair. Despite the glare, at least his silence meant he was the usual, less argument prone, more terse mech.

Megatron was nearing the site of where the most combat took place. It was still deserted and devastated with the destruction that came with the battle, not that he cared. He only wanted this planet's resources. Though it would be alarming if he couldn't find out who was responsible for making him this way and he was forced to live as a human. That thought was absolutely atrocious to the warlord. He also needed to find his forces and see what happened to them. Despite the trouble it would be, he actually hoped that they would be human too. He wanted them to have to suffer through this curse of literal humanity since he did. As he walked down the street, rounding a corner, he noticed that there was a small group of people around a park bench. As he neared them, he also noticed that each bore the Decepticon insignia around their necks. Yes, he supposed, these had to be the others that were with him in raiding the power plant. He noted that the only female of them was definitely his fourth in command, the one with a single streak of red hair against platinum with a haughty smirk on his face was Starscream most likely, and the two that flanked him would be his trine mates, which meant the other two were Barricade and Breakdown, now if only he could find his wayward surgeon/medic or whatever Knockout's purpose was. Walking up to them, he didn't utter a word, simply clearing his throat. With that single action, he had the attention of them all.

oOo

Jazz was up to his usual on the battlefield: grinding on the nerves of Decepticons and causing a spread of general havoc. As he shot forward and up at the rather huge frame of Breakdown, he swung blows in rapid succession, landing a few good hits at the 'con's upper portions, As gravity brought the saboteur back down, the silver mech fired several shots, hitting their mark quite well, and when he was just a few yards from the ground, he transformed into his alt mode. The wheels of the sports car hit asphalt of the road with a squeal and turned inwards due to the angle he hit his landing in causing him to go into about three and a half in-motion doughnuts, leaving helix-like skid marks under tire, marking the already dark grey hued asphalt; though, at three and a half three-sixties of burning rubber, he suddenly lost control of direction and stability, all of his visuals went dark for a splitted moment before returning to find his vision a mess of the metropolis' blurred colours, and himself flying uncontrolled through the air until his wayward flight was cut down by a lamp post, hitting said formation with his shoulder and falling to the ground with lackluster grace to the ground. _Day-um_ , he thought as he shook his head, and rolled his shoulders in an attempt to push his current pain under the metaphorical table. He stood, taking in his surroundings to look for signs of the 'con he was fighting, or really anybot at this moment since it seemed things had suddenly been deserted. Strange, then he noticed something that he probably should have at the beginning of his assessment of the area, everything was no longer undersize. In fact, it seemed that all of the features of his surroundings were in-scale. Picking himself up off the sidewalk, he walked to a store window, inspecting his reflection in the clear glass. He pulled one conclusion out of his metaphorical hat easily: he was human. Another he pulled from this situation was that this had to be one of those few times he was both surprised and had no idea what to do, not even how to "wing" things. He really had no idea. Then again, it wasn't like Autobot protocol had anything about this in it, not that he really ever did a thorough examination of said document. True to his nature though, the would-be monochrome mech kept his cool as he began to think about what he should do.

::Steer! Primus-dammit, steer!:: the yellow hellion hissed into the comm as he watched his brother careen waywardly as his red counterpart pulled at Thundercracker's wings in a vain attempt of steering the Seeker into the ground. After a few moments of this, a familiar black and purple F-22 materialized out of thin air to the right, slightly behind Thundercracker, and gaining fast, his objective rather obvious. Before Sunstreaker could shout a warning to his seemingly suicidal twin, a message came through their current comm link, ::Mayday! Mayday! A little help would be nice Sunshine. Ya'know, before I turn into a grease spot on the pavement! :: The not-so-sunny mech visibly scowled, replying ::Don't call me that, fraggin' Sideslime. If this scratches my paint, you're dead when we get back to base.:: With that, he cut the comm link, exventing in annoyance before hurling himself into the air, landing with an almost artful manner on the F-22 that was Thundercracker. In response to the unexpected weight on his right wing, the Seeker made a hard right, in a path to collide with his wayward trine mate. Despite the skill of the well-trained frontliner he was, the golden went with one of the most cliched moves of every dramatic action movie, he tackled his red counterpart, sending them both off of the top of the fighter jet and moving through empty air. It was in that instance, when he needed it the most to prevent this from becoming a demented version of Angry Birds, Sunstreaker's vision blacked out. It seemed, as luck would have it, that as he screamed words that he didn't comprehend, his brother was going through the same predicament. Though, with an almost psychotic sense of humour, his sight returned just as they were about to collide with the roof of a parking tower. It only took moments before his back made impact with the roof of some car unfortunate enough to be parked in that particular location, and not even another moment before the weight of his brother hit him. He shuttered his optics a few times before pushing Sideswipe off his chest, said mech landing on the concrete beside the vehicle with a resounding, "oof". It was at that moment though, it hit him how oddly quiet this whole debacle had been. Something like the odd mid-air flailing and collision should have produced a audial wrenching cacophony of grating metal, cracking cement, and grinding of stone. As well, how exactly did he and his brother not crush the vehicle currently underneath him, and to add to that, how did he almost fit onto it's roof? Interrupting his train of thought, his brother's voice chimed in, "Hey, Sunny, don't overreact, and don't question me, but get down from there and look at your reflection in one of the car's side mirrors." Raising an optical ridge, he slid off the roof of the car and looked into one of the rearview side mirrors of the vehicle. What he saw was the last thing he was expecting. Looking back at him were a set of ice blue eyes framed by smooth, choppy golden-blonde hair, face complete in an annoyed scowl, a hint of perplexion showing in a single, raised, ash blond eyebrow. He was rendered near speechless, muttering, "H-how?". Then he looked over to where Sideswipe's voice had sourced, and sure enough, staring at his own hands probably wondering where his pile-drivers were, was his brother, with the same likeness of traits except with cobalt eyes and strawberry blond hair. "Well-", he began, only to be finished by Sideswipe, "Frag".

Ironhide growled, cannons whirring in annoyance. He swore it was the same femme who took him on every time, lithe, thin-plated, fast, and with those annoying blades and claws, and to be frank, he was sick of it. _Fragging Decepticon coward_ , he thought as she flipped out of range of yet another strike, yet coming back in just in time to lay a few shallow scores in the armour over his arm with her claws. He could've probably got more damage from running into a door frame, but he knew the femme wasn't after his energon, though he figured if Megatron let her off whatever chain he was keeping her on, she wouldn't care in the least and would be going for the neck cabling of them all with those infernal blades and claws, maybe even the mech in question. Not his point, she was stalling. With that thought, he took a chance with the proximity and fired one of his plasma cannons at her, taking the opportunity to scan the field for Optimus. Without a single hint of the red and blue semi, he hissed in annoyance, firing again, pit-spawned glitch. Without waiting to see if hit its mark or not, he transformed hastily, to see what else was going on that he didn't know about. As he sped off, he surveyed things as he went, noting that it seemed as if anyone else who was stationed in the area had left, probably lead on by some of the other Decepticons, divide and conquer, he thought, well, maybe the slagger does have more under that bucket he called a helmet of his than rust. Though, it still did seem too simple, then the noise of jet engines was heard above the chaos from the other parts of the city. Now that seemed rational, and actually, he had to admit, not a bad idea: divide, distract, then rain down artillery fire. Now that was an idea. With that in mind, it was being directed to him and the other Autobots now spread throughout a civilian city. Well, now that he thought of it, maybe it was a good thing they spent about an hour arguing with their liaison about evacuating Detroit even though the original signal within the city was minor, Barricade, he thought. With that, the monochrome gunner transformed back to his root form as he whipped back in the direction he came from, standing with cannons at the ready just in time to see Starscream bearing down hard in his direction. Without a thought, he made aim for the chassis of the F-22. Though, hardly green, said jet was not new to being shot at, Ironhide watched as the former Winglord of Vos dipped under the blast. Hoping for the Seeker to not have the reaction time to dodge a second shot, he fired again, this time going for the wings, but the instant before the blast would have made impact the Seeker went into a barrel roll, firing null rays in retaliation as he did so, then with the masterful flight skill belonging to the Decepticon Air Commander he was, he took the craft in a steep and tight upward climb just at the ending of his barrel roll. Cursing, the black and silver mech transformed quickly and drew back, pulling a mid-road curve in a wide arc to avoid the array of null ray blasts sent from above. When the fire broke, he ended his arc with a quick jerk, but instead of his intended idea of transforming aptly and going back into an upward stance, the world seemed to go dark for a moment as he felt himself roll forward; his vision returning just in time for him to use his hands to avoid helm-first contact with concrete. As he looked down at the ground he nearly had a collision with, he noticed something, the hands holding him up were fleshy, and the concrete was actually scorching from the previous fire it had been under, something that had never bothered him previously. Promptly pushing himself up, he took a few steps back, surveying the area and noticing that, oddly enough, everything was in scale -more or less. Though, before he could reap the implications of that revelation, further down the street -his previous location- he noticed a human curled up against the wall. At that, the thought came up that Detroit had been evacuated of all humans, but that didn't have too long to sink in before, from seemingly the sky, another fell. It was at that moment he gathered all of what happened for whatever reason and ducked behind a map of the city displayed on the side of a merchant stand of sorts on the sidewalk. Taking a quick glance at the location indicated on the map and the two others who seemed to be approaching the other two from the distance, he tried to exit the area unnoticed. Once away from the area, he tried to think of how the Decepticons would have thought to scatter the others, and especially where Optimus was. Well, knowing that the gunmetal warlord favoured the idea of destroying Prime uninterrupted, he probably would have led him as far as possible from the other Autobots. So, if they were originally stationed in this part of Detroit- the gunner gained an annoyed expression- Optimus was on the other side of this city -massive by human standards- and the others were scattered throughout. "Just peachy", he grumbled to himself, "Where's Prowl when I need 'im?", The Praxian's knack for analyzing and breaking down tactics and patterns would be helpful now, he thought silently as he finished his statement and then headed on his way. This would be a long walk.

Jazz continued to walk through the streets, trying to find the others, be their state human or Cybertronian. As he did so, he tapped one of the blue-tinted lens of the pair of wraparound sunglasses he was now sporting in the place of his visor, underneath, pale aquamarine eyes darted about in surveillance; though, it wasn't them who noticed the noise of voices that were usually arguing, one muttering in perplexion and anguish, and another in hollow reassurance, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe. Yes, of all mechs in the Autobot faction, he had to run into the two Lambo-hellions. Still, it was better than nothing, by some degree anyways. Following the voices took him to a nearby cement parking garage, two strikingly similar blonds just exiting, still having the same conversation that's noise led him to them. Jazz watched them for a few moments before clearing his throat, taking up a voice similar to Prowl, "Ahem, I assure you, you're both beautiful, and the sky isn't falling." As he watched them finally take notice of his presence, they looked at him for a few moments before the one he assumed to be Sideswipe due to his cobalt irises and more red-blond hair spoke, "Ah, Jazz, is that you?" The mech in question, he crossed his arms across his chest, "Nah, mech, I'm Ratch, and you should be running.", or should that be "man", he wondered for a moment before pushing the thought aside, rolling his eyes behind his shades and adding, "Of course I'm Jazz, but you should be just as scared mechling." Nah, mech sounded better, he decided to himself, finishing his earlier thought.

"I see", the formerly red frontliner replied to him, "So, what's the plan?" Sunstreaker, who had remained silent the entire time, finally spoke, sighing as he did so, "Brother dearest, I thought it would be obvious. Since there isn't exactly a subsection in the Autobot protocol entitled 'What the frag you do if you're turned human on the battlefield', we would ask the mech running the operation." Sideswipe easily understood what his brother was saying, but just for the sake of it, decided to drag things out, "Of course there isn't, Prowl would never allow profanity to pass on an official document." Sunstreaker deadpanned, the only indication of irritation being in his eyes, "No he wouldn't, but-", his sentence was cut off by a whistle from Jazz, "Ya' know, I'd love to stick around to watch two femmes have a catfight, but we kinda need to find the BossBot if ya' know what I mean." With that, they began to walk, following the shorter third in command, the only noise for about two blocks being said mech humming to a song unheard by them.

As Ironhide continued to walk, the sun moving lower in the sky until it was near sunset, he noticed a noise in the distance. It almost seemed musical, having a melodic flow; though, it was calm as if halfway muted. Humming, he concluded which implied a presence of another was near. Doubting that any of the 'cons were really music fans, there was only one mech that was with them that would be casually humming in a crisis: Jazz. With that, he quickened his pace slightly. Soon, in the distance, he spotted three figures, one leading. The two others seemed to be whispering between each other, one occasionally shoving the other lightly. Not that he was extremely psyched to be back in the presence of the two headstrong frontliners, he did care about them in his own way. Anyhow, this meant that they had everybody who was with them other than Optimus and Dragonfly, so that was good. As well, it seemed Jazz knew he was present instantaneously, or maybe even before considering all three of them had stopped and the twins were sitting at a busstop as Jazz stood, leaning against its side at staring directly at Ironhide, or at least he thought he was. The blue-tinted, reflective sunglasses he now wore had the same effect as his visor. For all he knew, the music-loving mech was sleeping as he leaned against the wall. Still, that was highly unlikely. As he came closer, Jazz pushed himself off of the wall smoothly, greeting him as he did so, "Ah, 'Hide, so ya' got the memo. Humanity's trending I hear." The weapon's specialist shook his head at the saboteur's greeting, getting the jist of his words. "Yah -some memo- going to see if I can find Optimus, you?" Jazz chuckled dryly, "Well, I thought it was 'bout time we all took a roadtrip." He nodded over to the two -formerly- Lamborghinis, "Time to hit the road guys."

After a short while, around sunset, they had gotten to the other side of the city, walking through what seemed to be an average suburban area with cluttered houses and the such, minus the scorch marks, uprooted trees, and digs in the concrete. As Jazz looked around, he noted that the evidence of combat didn't continue much further, so unless Optimus had moved, he should be somewhere around their very location. Upon the very thought, he noticed a dark brunet guy that seemed to have a late twenties to thirties look about him calmly righting a mailbox as he walked down the sidewalk, cyan eyes flicking about to the occasional fallen leaf floating past in the wind. Definitely Optimus, he thought as he noted the blue-red colour scheme brought about by the simple red t-shirt and mildly dyed indigo jeans that had shifted from his previous armour. "I think I've found our mech.", he said cooly, jumping across a puddle littered with a few fallen leaves at the side of the street and crossed the street, noting the noise of the others following him. As he neared, Optimus looked up, having finished righting the mailbox, "Jazz, Ironhide, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe?" Jazz nodded, standing off to the Prime's side, "Yeah, the one and only; though, we're kinda all humans now." The blue and red bedecked of them tipped his head, "I had figured as much, and of Dragonfly?" Jazz tapped on the rims of his sunglasses, sighing, "Kinda figured she was with ya' BossBot." Optimus didn't seem to react much, even without his mask, his emotions remained hard to read, "I see, and of the Decepticons?"

Ironhide had remained silent for the most part, looking at his surroundings and noting now that he was human, how large the damage left seemed. When he picked up on the conversation, he spoke up, "They're on the other side of the city. Gathered in front of some industrial plant.", pausing, he added, "Think the 'cons could've got her. I mean, she's a bat out of hell for sure, but a human her against all of the 'cons that were in the fight, even with them human, it's stretching it." His leader seemed to give himself a small time to think about his suggestion before speaking, " You are correct; though, we need to find both the Decepticons and Dragonfly, and if she is indeed in their custody, then that is all the more reason to. You said you knew of their location- lead the way Ironhide."

* * *

Thank you for reading and I respect constructive criticism if you would like to leave a review. Have a nice day/night!


	2. Chapter II: A Tenative Proposal

Vex bit her lip, deciding that she preferred being previously too short to look into Megatron's optics. While she may have not been a coward -far from it- looking into the eyes of a displeased and seemingly pissed Megatron wasn't something she desired, and, might she add, very unsettling. Without thinking, she quickly tipped her head, acknowledging him, "Lord Megatron". After doing so, acknowledgment was followed by Starscream and the others. In response, he simply grunted, then spoke, "My Decepticons, might I ask, what exactly has happened?" At his words, she decided to let the explaining fall from Starscream's lips; after all, he did outrank her, but she only wanted him to explain simply because of the stormy mood the warlord had been put in by their predicament. As Vex hoped, an all too familiar, screechy-edged voice spoke, "My lord, I believe we have been turned into humans, the-". The second in command was cut off before he could finish, "I am not a fool Starscream. I forgive your incompetence for not realising the meaning of my question was to ask for reasoning." Starscream gulped visibly, she observed, before he spoke again, "How gracious of you, my lord. The answer to that question...I do not know." Wrong answer, she thought, but much to her surprise the warlord simply shook his head and turned to her, much to her own annoyance. "Since Soundwave is not here and he is my advisor and you are his immediate lower rank and former student, what do you suggest I do?" Vex paused, not quite knowing how to react to that question. While she may have been a secondary tactician to the command tier, none of her advice was to be listened to so she never thought out any course of actions other than her own and sometimes those under her command, and she had only been under Soundwave's tutelage for matters regarding technological espionage. "My lord", she began carefully, avoiding anything along the lines of 'if it were me', "I would advise contacting Soundwave to see how things fare at base as well as having him locate Knockout, and in the case that he is suffering through a similar plight have him meet us at a confirmed location and find a location that could properly accommodate us while a solution is found." She swallowed, meeting his eyes as she watched his facial features tweak in thought until he finally spoke, raising an eyebrow as he did so, "And how would you suggest executing contact?" Replying with a practiced caution, she spoke, "I believe that due to his scientific skill and longer duration than I on Earth, Starscream should have no trouble in making contact with Soundwave using one of the humans' computers. Due to our area, there should be many inside of the buildings at disposal." Wordlessly, he turned his attention to Starscream and commenced to speak with him. Silently, she decided that while she was ambitious, she would never wish to climb the ranks above her, only jump to the one that mattered. That is if they escaped this predicament.

Starscream wanted to throw the flightless fourth in command off the bridge of the Nemesis. Of course, from observer's experience -she had been thrown off the bridge of said ship before- her emergency anti-gravitational systems would activate to stop her from falling to her death or possible maiming. That was beside the point. The last thing he wanted at the moment was his ever gracious lord's attention, and if the past was any proof, later his wrath. As the now grey and black bedecked warlord turned his attention to him, Starscream grew ever more annoyed. Deciding now was as good a time to grovel as any other, he tipped his head in acknowledgement, "Lord Megatron, you seek my knowledge. I am more than capable and willing to aid you with it."

Megatron didn't bother acknowledging his display and nodded, "Is it true that what she speaks of you are capable of?"

If the Air Commander wanted to test what strength Megatron held as a human, he would have hissed his answer; however, he refrained, the other still larger than him, "Ever capable, master." Though, he couldn't help but growl a little at the utterance of his last word.

His leader seemed to notice, giving him a cold smile, "Then see it so Starscream." With that, Megatron turned his attention to the door of the production plant they were in front of, looking up at the door and referencing a few snippets of humans doing as such before, then walked over to it and kicked it solidly, knocking it off of its hinges then pushing it from the door frame with his hands and addressed them all, "Decepticons, proceed; Breakdown, remain here as a guard."

Starscream flinched a little at the obvious show of strength that he still maintained as a human; though, rolled his eyes at his last command, thinking to himself, Guard what? Still, the Seeker didn't utter a word of his thoughts, following the seemingly bored warlord into the building, followed by the others, minus the ex-wrecker who remained at the doorway without question. Fool, his thoughts remarked, but paused themselves as his attentions were directed to a simple human computer. Giving little regard to those around him, he took a seat at the rather plain desk, starting up the computer, only rolling his eyes at something as simple as a password and began to get along with his objective. After sometime, he succeeded in getting a signal to transmit. At that moment he looked up, unimpressed by the display of Skywarp shooting the room's other occupants, minus Megatron, with a stapler. The mech excluded from his possible insane trine mate's antics sitting on a chair probably meant for those waiting to speak with whomever operated the plant looking boredly through a window that gave viewing to the production line of several automobiles. Finally he spoke, "My lord, a connection has been made with the Nemesis."

Megatron had been watching the robotic machines assembling automobiles in a rather trance-like tedium. It almost made him want to scowl. These foolish humans thought they were so advanced. Yet, he knew if they so much as saw him in his true form t hey wouldn't be able to fathom the possibility. Once again, he thought, fools, moronic fools. At that thought, he turned to where Starscream was at, and at the very moment the seeker announced that he had made connection to the Nemesis. Sighing, he stood and walked over where many windows were pulled up on the primitive technology, each with lines of script and encryption scrolling across, along with a few frequency readouts, the focus of them a purely black window with a single neon green line across it. "So, Starscream", he began, "how is this to work?"The Seeker replied aptly, addressing him with a tip of the head, "The technology is fairly primitive, but as I said, my liege, I managed to transmit a signal successfully to the Nemesis but, the manner in which verbal communication will transmit is a bit different. Still, it works none the less. This current technology I'm working with is quite easy to hack and intercept, so anything sent encrypts itself three times over and the same process repeats itself upon arrival, so it may take longer than expected.", the second in command then added quickly, "Ah, and I'm ready to go about doing so at your command."

He didn't comment, simply nodding then spoke, "Now, then". The warlord watched in amusement at the slight surprise and annoyance he elicited from his second in command before the -former- flier collected himself and nodded, typing and selecting a few things before speaking, "Alright, my lord, speak at your leisure. Soundwave has already intercepted the transmission; though, strangely enough, he's not responding in any audible manner." Megatron nodded, not finding it that strange that Soundwave had chosen not to speak, sighing, and spoke rather simply, "Soundwave, status?"

After a few moments, Starscream nodded, speaking, "Received. Soundwave reports that he is currently locked in the control room with a drone piloting the ship because he is, due to current conditions, physically unable to do so himself and is approaching our coordinates with the request of consulting us of some matter."

Once again, nodding, he asked rather bluntly, "Soundwave, are you human?" There was a long pause, longer than the first until receiving a reply, but before Starscream could reverse the encryption, several of the windows shut down by themselves, only the ones necessary for maintaining connection remaining, and a new one opened itself with one word displayed: _Yes_. Sighing, he responded, "So are we. Can you still trace Knock Out's location?" This time, another line appeared in the previous window, reading: _Negative; Last location: Aprox. 3.36 blocks by walking along the sidewalk from current location taking the path with the nearest turn._ "Alright", he paused thinking about what he was about to say. In all truth, he had no real idea of what to do, and he hated it. He was the gladiator warlord of the Decepticons; he always knew something to do, but this, he really didn't know. Though, if he continued on, then this would be the second time in one day where he had asked for the advice of others. Deciding to speak, he continued, "Soundwave, continue with your plans of meeting us at our current location and enter from the roof. That is all." A single affirmative popped up on the screen for a few seconds before the screen blacked out and the entire console seemed to simultaneously crash then short out, refusing to turn back on. Megatron shrugged it off as a precautionary action that Soundwave carried out through his hacking, leaving Starscream to deal with its disposal. With plans laid out, he walked from behind the desk and gave orders, "Vex, Barricade, go retrieve Knock Out. His last known location was approximately 3.36 blocks from our current location using the sidewalk path that has the nearest turn from this street. Thundercracker, Skywarp, go up to the roof and await the arrival of the Nemesis. Soundwave and possibly others will be joining us. Lead him back into this room." That seemed to, more or less, snap them back into order as all four of the idle Decepticons rose, bowing in acknowledgement of his presence as they passed him and moved to carry out their respective orders. With that, he took his previous seat, simply waiting for something to happen.

Vex sighed as she left the building, having grown bored of sitting around and thinking about how this could end which wasn't exactly an enjoyable thing to think about since most outcomes didn't end up too good for anyone, much less herself. Walking along the designated path with Barricade was an improvement; though, in it's way, even worse simply because it was a mind numbing activity. As they rounded the corner, she spoke, "I really wish I wasn't human. I, quite frankly, don't exactly like the idea of having to walk." She gave a pause replaying her words then added, "I hate it." She didn't exactly get a response, sighing, and continued on. As she did, Barricade suddenly sneered, "And you think I do. No one of us wants to be human." She sighed, muttering, "True", not bothering to point out that because of rank, he really had no right to speak to her that way; after all, what did it matter at the moment? It's not like there was anything for her to be ambitious and scornful about at the moment. She was human, and how she saw things, that alone made everything she and everyone else was worthless. Vex would continue to keep it in mind that as long as they were human, nothing mattered but getting through it.

After a rather lengthy walk, they were in the proximity of the area they had been directed into. Wanting some time to herself, she turned to Barricade, "I'll take this side of the street, you take the other." Leaving no time for debate, she picked up a chunk of cement from the road, a little smaller than her palm and threw it at the glass of the nearest building's door, a generic shop of some kind. In response the glass large arcs of cracks spiderwebbed across the expanse of the glass door and she walked nearer to it, spinning without any forward indication or warning and kicked out one of her legs, thus shattering the glass, leaving it in shards as she pulled her leg back and walked calmly through what was left of the door, shards of glass crunching beneath the heeled combat boots that had shifted along with herself. It seemed to be some type of sandwich type restaurant she observed as she looked around. After only walking a few steps behind some sort of counter two faces glaring at her told her she had found Knockout, and someone else she'd rather have not found.

Dragonfly was not happy. That was probably an understatement. The fierce femme had not been amused when she found herself falling into a tree. It didn't help that, in due process she had became human somehow. Squishy, that was the one word she could think of to describe herself at the moment. After finding her way out of that tree she had set to finding the others. However, much to her ire, so far she had only found one other bot-former, technically-, and she had the pleasure of it being the Decepticon's less than pleasant surgeon/medic/bleeding psycho. This was not turning out to be a good day. Needless to say, she had little pleasantries to greet the crimson mech with. Rather, she had the delight of the discovery that she still possessed wonderful combat skills and Knockout's surgical saw hadn't stayed with him in his transition to human. Call her on edge if you'd like -she had every right to be-, she found herself poised over the formerly crimson mech, one hand on his chest holding him down, and another drawn back and poised to strike at his trachea. She had a basic understanding of how organisms functioned, and, should she strike, it would put the one squirming underneath her in considerable pain. Slowly and threateningly, she spoke, "One more slaggin' word out of your mouth, Knockout, and I swear to Primus you will be rolling around choking and grasping your throat." A long, irritating story short, the rather repulsive excuse that served as the Decepticon's medic had made a remark about Optimus. Naturally, human or not, she had him on the ground before he could even think of recanting, and when he kept talking she threatened to crush his trachea, which, in her understanding, was the equivalent of a voice box and vital component to a ventilation system rolled in one. At about that moment, she heard a crash coming from the front of the building she was in. Scowling, the (formerly) silver femme turned her head in the direction of the noise, but, much to the Decepticon under threat's misfortune, kept a solid stance and hold. As soon as she began hearing the crunching of glass foot and a feminine voice, Vex's, Dragonfly was on both feet and marching irritatedly towards the noise, Decepticon medic in tow by the neck. After walking to the front of the building, a whining Knockout being pulled along, she found herself in what would seem to be what the humans referred to as a staring contest with the black clad figure that was the fourth in command behind the voice she had heard.

Vex had most definitely found Knockout, but, clearly, he couldn't shut his mouth long enough not to get caught by a furious Autobot femme. Vex, hardly new to being stared down, stood her ground, calmly, she continued to hold her gaze before speaking, "Hand over the medic." It wasn't a request. Whether or not the Decepticons were in a state of crisis and whether or not she Knockout had offended this Autobot, the ambitious saboteur refused to ingratiate herself to anyone. Her eyes momentarily darted to glance at the medic in question. He was, of course, like the rest of the Cybertronians present, human; however, there was no mistaking the bravado of Knockout. He seemed more or less stressed, she noted. The Autobot femme's response to her demand was simply to give her a facial expression that relayed a message to the effect of a bored, "seriously, you're making demands?" Vex scowled. For a moment she considered fighting, it was, after all, her second nature to respond to resistance with coordinated violence in whatever form she deemed most appropriate, but, before she could make a move, her head whirled in the direction of the door as she heard voices approaching.

Ironhide lead the way back to where he had last saw the 'cons gathering. It was quite the walk. It had, after all, taken him and the others until sunset -they had arrived in Detroit this morning and things took a turn for the worse at midday- to reach Optimus. It looked to be dusk when he spotted the familiar little kiosk he had hidden behind that had a framed map of the city on its side. He continued on until he came upon the bench he had saw the Decepticons begin to congregate around before he left. Of course, seeing as how much time had passed, the gaggle of 'cons could be anywhere in the city by now; however, something told him, be it instinct, that they would have stayed in the area. Call him crazy, but fighting in a war for so long had taught him that following his instincts was hardly the worse thing to do. If experience was anything to go by, his instincts, more often than not, weren't too far off. Suddenly the gunner heard a crashing noise, like glass being shattered. His head whirled in the direction of the sound; however, the -former- truck was unsure if he should follow in the direction of said sound.

Lucky for Ironhide, Jazz made the decision for him with a quick, "Come on! Let's go check out what that noise was." The sabotage meister hardly meant to undermine Optimus' orders since the Boss Bot had said for 'hide to lead them to where he last saw the Decepticons, but, considering the state of emergency they were in, the monochrome bedecked Jazz was sure Optimus could give him a pass this one time. The rest of the bots, said warrior Prime included, didn't seem to mind the change in events and followed after the music enthusiast as he strode in the direction of the sound. After rounding a corner, two things caught Jazz's attention: One was a shattered glass door that had well enough room for someone to step through, and two was a man who was investigating the opposite strip of stores that bore the Decepticon insignia around his neck just as he and his fellow Autobots bore their own insignia. Jazz turned his head in Optimus's direction as if asking whether or not they should apprehend the presumed 'con. After a short few moments, Jazz's silent inquiry was provided with an answer.

Optimus spoke, his voice's usual tone of calm and commanding not faltering even as a human, "Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, pursue the Decepticon and return with him. The rest of us will investigate this shop." Acknowledging his third in command, he addressed Jazz, "Continue as you were."

The formerly silver saboteur walked through the hole that that been smashed into the glass door. After walking only a few steps he was greeted with a most interesting sight. At the very least, they had found Dragonfly….with one Decepticon medic in tow and a very fragged off Decepticon Second Lieutenant glaring at her. Deciding to break the ice and this odd little standoff, the sabotage meister cleared his throat to bring attention to himself and his comrades. To the untrained eye, it would seem that the Decepticon femme didn't notice such a thing or regard it as important. Though, Jazz was far from an untrained eye. The head of Spec OPs was quick to notice the almost imperceptible glance of her eyes. With that, he spoke, "Now that I have your attention and you're outnumbered- I've always wanted to have a reason to say this." Jazz paused to school his features into an intimidating expression and forced himself speak in a serious tone, "Take us to your leader." After he got the words out, a few coughs concealing his own chuckles of amusement followed. As did, he noticed, facepalm courtesy of Dragonfly. Though, in all seriousness, he knew that being outnumbered may not be enough to convince the Decepticon espionage agent into standing down. He would know both from his own personal experience and observation of said 'con in question. However, seeing as he and all of his present fellow Autobots were rather seasoned combatants, he hoped that would deter her from starting a fight.

Vex looked from Dragonfly, to Knockout, then to the group of Autobots. Silently she weighed her options. She was outnumbered and Knockout wouldn't be much help until he escaped the Autobots femme's hold. Though, said femme would likely be occupied with trying to keep that hold. She didn't doubt her ability to take on Ironhide or even the Autobots' warrior Prime. Perhaps at the same time she'd be worn down faster but fighting mechs larger than her was almost standard, and it was the perfect companion to her fighting style. Since they were all presumably weaponless that factor was moot. However, Jazz was one Autobot she'd admit to herself that she didn't want to face. It wasn't because she was afraid of the -formerly- silver saboteur, but something quite similar. She respected him. Of course, Vex chalked that up to some odd form or empathy since he held a similar position to her within the Autobot faction. Almost moments before she sprung into action, two males who she assumed to be the Twin Terrors, Lamborghini hell makers they were, walked in with a captive Barricade between them. The black clad fourth in command took a gulp before hesitantly speaking, "I'll show you, but first release Knockout and Barricade." As an afterthought, she added, "you would still outnumber us." A few looks were exchanged between all of the Autobots present before both of the Decepticons in question were released. Out of habit, she gave a small bow, "at your service," before beginning to lead the way to the automobile production plant with her fellow Decepticons taking up the rear.

Meanwhile, at the automobile production facility he had….commandeered to use as a temporary base of operations for the Decepticons, Megatron sat coolly in the chair he had yet to rise from as Starscream's trine mates escorted a group, all of whom bore the Decepticon insignia around their necks, into the room. The former gladiator turned warlord surveyed them, hiding his own confusion well. He had been able to, after looking them over several times, identify the Combaticons. However, he was quite miffed at why they were accompanied by a female, and Soundwave seemed to be absent despite earlier communicating with him. Said female in the Combaticons' accompaniment stood rather tall for a human woman, clad in colours of black and deep violet, and wore sunglasses that appeared to have lenses that were, from one side of their lenses, completely opaque. If he recalled correctly, there hadn't been any femmes, aside from Vex, on the Nemesis for quite some time now.

After a few moments the black and violet clad figure spoke, though not in a voice Megatron was expecting. Her lips didn't move as she spoke, though a voice, Soundwave's, did in fact speak, "Soundwave at your service, my lord." A quick bow followed. Once the communications officer returned to his former posture, almost instantaneously, a peregrine falcon saw fit to take perch upon the -former-mech's shoulder. Soundwave, after regarding the bird calmly, spoke in a spiel of recorded voices, "Autobots with Vex, Knockout, and Barricade in their custody are approaching my lord."

 _This day just kept getting better._

oOo

Megatron glared past the figures standing before him and at the wall across from where he was seated as if the pathetic slab of drywall had committed some grievous offence against the warlord. After exhaling deeply, he finally turned his attention back to the figures that were standing before him. Somehow his second lieutenant, medic, and whatever Barricade was had all managed to get themselves captured by Autobots- or, at least who he and Soundwave had safely assumed were Autobots. Much to his discovery, the Autobots' warrior Prime and some others were going through a similar predicament as he and his Decepticons. Of course, at the present moment, he wondered if Optimus was more naïve than he always depicted him to be in slander. The Prime wanted his help to contact their base to inquire about their comrades' state; furthermore, the Autobot leader had appealed to him to join them and seek help from the humans. Last he checked, the formerly silver warlord had made himself clear over the many years of war that nothing short of Unicron himself could sway Megatron to aid Optimus -never again would they be side by side. Anyways, he had little desire to collaborate with the squishes that inhabited this spinning ball of dirt that passed for a planet in any capacity. His rejection of said proposal had led to the room being encompassed in a steely silence.

The silence was finally broken by Soundwave after several quiet minutes with the only noise being the clicking of a stapler as Skywarp resumed his former activity of shooting the room's occupants, sans Megatron, with harmless staples. Said Communications Officer spoke up in what could only be assumed was a recording of his former voice, "My lord, a word, if you will."

The silver gladiator-warlord tipped his head in acknowledgement of who could be said to be his favourite of the Decepticons under his command, "Soundwave."

The formerly onyx coloured mech walked over to the seated Megatron, speaking quietly. To an outside observer it would seem that his lips were hardly moving at all.

As he spoke, the Lord of the Decepticons listened, occasionally interjecting, thoughtfully. After some while, Megatron dismissed his third in command and advisor with a solid, "Your consul is noted, Soundwave." Once the surveillance officer resumed his unofficial post near the room's main desk with what the warlord assumed was a watchful eye on the room's occupants, he spoke, addressing the gathered, "I have considered the proposal of Optimus Prime, and, despite my initial rejection of it, my advisor has pointed out its practicality. That being said, I accept Prime's proposal to help him maintain contact with the Autobot base on the condition that there be later collaboration regarding the issue of our current….state." Once he finished speaking, the formerly silver mech turned his head away, resuming his former activity of watching the little robots at the plant assemble automotive parts. Megatron wouldn't call himself arrogant, but, only to himself, the proud former gladiator would admit he resented needing the consul of others. Of course, he'd also would concede that, of the entirety of his forces, if he must welcome the advices of others, the most welcome would be those of his third in command. He sighed and shook his head. Megatron most certainly wished for this predicament to be over quickly.

Jazz, despite the saboteur's usually cool and laid back attitude, was silently wondering if bludgeoning the arrogant warlord with the stapler the possibly deranged Seeker was shooting him with was an overreaction. Of course, he hadn't expected Megatron to readily agree with Prime, that was a given taking their history into consideration, but this suddenly wasn't just a minor spat. A good amount of their already near extinct species had been turned into humans. For that, and for that alone, Jazz had expected the warlord to take some consideration into a possible collaboration. Naturally, he was confused as Soundwave began to speak with Megatron. The Lord of the Decepticons was more or less notorious for his decisiveness, however flawed. A few moments later and Jazz went from confused to…. _befuddled_. What could the Decepticons' communications officer possibly had said to sway the formerly silver warlord? Nonetheless, after casting a glance in the direction of his Prime, he supposed it was for the better.

After Megatron's announcement, Soundwave, rather than Starscream who had initially made contact with the Decepticons' _Nemesis_ , gestured for the Autobots' Prime to follow him to one of the nearby computers. Little did the communications officer care, but Jazz also opted to follow his Prime over to the computer. Not speaking a single word, Soundwave's fingers flew across the keys. Hacking into a human computer was a task he could accomplish without even maintaining consciousness. He continued through the process of securing contact with the Autobot base without a single query directed at the Prime or his third in command regarding security or the like. Soundwave supposed he truly couldn't help himself as a small smirk tugged at the corner of his lips. In short, there was little that went without his notice. Whilst he worked, Laserbeak, who had seemed to take the form of some sort of earthly avian, moved from his shoulder to perch atop the monitor, eyeing the Autobots warily in the stead of his master. After a few moments more, Soundwave leaned back in the chair he had commandeered. Looking up through his reflective sunglasses at the Prime and his third in command, he spoke, lips not moving, "I've maintained a connection with your base and informed them of your current predicament. It would seem your head of security and second in command were rendered temporarily incapacitated by recent events, so you will be speaking to your CMO. Of course, I didn't disclose my own identity." With an almost casual gesture, he pressed a key and the voice of the Autobot's cranky medical officer poured out of the computer's speakers.

Optimus, had he not a reputation as the Autobots' warrior Prime to uphold, would have openly exclaimed that Ratchet's voice was one of the best things he had heard this whole day -save for the fact that everyone who had left the base with him had been accounted for- since their rather humanly transition.

It was quite clear Ratchet's frankness had not escaped him as he spoke over their connection, "Prime, we're all human...and our current situation is chaos-"

Said Prime couldn't help but interject before the medic could finish, "Is everyone at base okay? Everyone I took with me is human, myself included, but we're all whole and accounted for."

An exhalation of either relief or exasperation could be heard over the connection before the CMO continued to speak, "We're all in one piece if that constitutes okay. Otherwise, Prowl fainted the moment he realised he was human, and Red Alert, who I'm assuming is human, has locked himself in the surveillance room and sounds like he's hyperventilating." After a long, staticky pause, Ratchet added, "If you could provide coordinates, I think I could send a ground bridge for collection."

The red and blue clad Prime sighed before casting Soundwave, who he wasn't even entirely sure if said Decepticon was looking at him, a questioning glance. The darkly dressed communications officer didn't even look up as his fingers flew across the keys in graceful strokes, presumably sending their coordinates, before resuming his former posture of leaning back in the desk chair.

Ratchet responded with a short thanks before the connection was ended.

After the connection ended, Soundwave uttered not a single word as keys clicked. He stood from the computer. Almost instantaneously, the computer seemed to crash, the screen going dark before giving off a few ominous sparks. Passing by the Prime and his third in command, he walked back into the room the others had been occupying. Laserbeak, the now falcon, remained perched on the monitor, seemingly undaunted by its sparking state, with his eyes fixed on the two Autobots who remained at the desk. It wasn't until they left to rejoin the others that the avian flapped his wings and took to the air to rejoin his master.

Knockout stood next to the doorframe that, courtesy of one Decepticon warlord, was rendered door-less as he spoke with Breakdown -or, rather, to. As with most situations, his assistant was quite content to listen to Knockout talk about this and that with only the occasional sentence or two that added to the conversation. The Decepticon medic, since he had arrived, had spent the conversation grousing about his appearance and how this squishy, human form didn't at all suit him -but, of course, he was still far more striking than anyone else. Whilst he was speaking, a ground bridge suddenly materialised next to him. A reaction of surprise more than anything else, the formerly red mech jumped back. Cautiously, eyeing the glowing ground bridge, he queried, "Ah, Breakdown, is that for us?"

Breakdown, despite being ordered otherwise to guard the entryway (What was the point if the Autobots were already inside? What was there to guard?, walked over to where Knockout was standing. Amber eyes flicked over to the gathered, now human, Cybertroninans before speaking, "I think it's for all of us."

He eyed his partner skeptically, a hand on his hip as he looked at the room's occupants, raising an eyebrow, "You can't possibly be serious, Breakdown." Almost as soon as he had said the words, he observed Optimus walking over to Megatron and briefly speaking before calling the Autobots to him and towards the ground bridge in question. However, before Knockout had the opportunity to toss a smirk in the way of his partner, the Lord of the Decepticons saw fit to announce that they would be following the Autobots to their base. The twisted surgeon couldn't help but be agape.

His blue clad partner gave a quiet chuckle before tapping on the chin, "You could catch flies that way." Patting him on the back, he added, "Let's get going like the Buckethead said, Knocks."

Knockout shook his head, clearing his throat before giving a rather self-assured, "Of course, lead the way, Breakdown."

* * *

Hello! This is Ivana Marchoness, again. I just have a few things I would like to say about this chapter. Reguarding Soundwave, after a rather interesting conversation with my friend (Autobot Dragonfly), I was more or less convinced to make Soundwave, as a human, female; however, he still is a mech (I know, it's a bit odd). Furthermore, I will continue to refer to him with male pronouns. Also, as I said, this fic I consider Multiverse (mainly influenced by G1, Prime, and touches of others). That being said, Soundwave is based mostly on his Prime incarnation, thus the reason I chose only to include Laserbeak and why Laserbeak is depicted as a peregrine falcon. After a short amount of deliberation, it was decided a peregrine falcon fit that motif better rather than the more Gernerations accurate alternative, an Andean condor. As always, please feel free to PM me to keep me on my toes regarding the writing process of the next chapter.

Thank you for reading! Please review if you like; I always appreciate constructive criticism.


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